Opinion: A divided Ukraine? Think again

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Ukrainian children in Kiev show off a sign they made in response to the Crimea referendum.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Maia Mikhaluk is a freelance photographer and one of the protesters who has been documenting the unrest in Ukraine since February 18. In these photos, she offers us a glimpse of the faces inside Maidan, the central square in Kiev where the majority of the demonstrations took place.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Maia Mikhaluk said that the people of Ukraine had a chance to live out the words of their national anthem: "We'll lay our bodies and souls for our freedom."

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Mikhaluk said that since the evening of February 18, a once peaceful Euromaidan had become a battlefield.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A protester washes his hands in Kiev's Independence Square.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Independence Square after a week of protests."This sunny day felt like spring cleaning, like taking care of our home together!" Mikhaluk said.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – During the demonstrations and afterward, people passed out sandwiches for protesters who were camped out in the city square.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A woman tends to the wounds of a Ukrainian soldier.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A young girl plays piano in downtown Kiev 10 days after protests there.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – "People are still coming with flowers and grieving for the heroes who laid their lives for free Ukraine. The streets are like rivers of flowers,'" Mikhaluk said.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Mikhaluk says Ukrainians were still mourning when the upper house of Russia's Parliament approved Russia's use of military intervention in Ukraine.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – Meanwhile, Ukrainians have started cleaning Kiev after several months of protesting.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A young family lights candles in memory of those who died protesting in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the central square of Kiev.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – "Most weddings in Kiev now find their way to Maidan, as newlyweds come to give their gratitude and give honor to the heroes," Mikhaluk said.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – "People in Ukraine are very concerned, scared -- war has not been a part of reality of the lives of our generation," Mikhaluk said.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A young Ukrainian boy cheers in support of his country.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story18 photos

Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – A young couple embraces in Kiev's main square where people have gathered to show their support for their country.

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Ukraine crisis: One woman's story – "No civil war in Ukraine, Mr. Putin! It must be getting harder to justify the presence of military force to protect somebody when nobody is in danger," Mikhaluk said.

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Story highlights

Ukrainian Maia Mikhaluk has been documenting the unrest in her country

She says the situation in Kiev is tense as Russia moves its troops to the Crimean Peninsula

She wrote a passionate essay in response to Russia's military intervention in Ukraine

I am a Russian-speaking Ukrainian. I am ethnically half-Russian, as my father was born in Siberia. I spent much of my life in Donetsk, a Russian-speaking area of Ukraine. Now I live in Kiev.

My kids speak Ukrainian in school and with many of their friends, and we speak Russian at home. When my son's fourth-grade teacher talks to me, she speaks Ukrainian. I respond in Russian. We don't even notice that our conversation is in two languages.

I understand Ukrainian but don't speak it as easily as I speak English. I just never had any pressure to learn it. In Lviv, in the western part of Ukraine, most speak primarily Ukrainian, but even there, I never had anybody look down on me for my Russian. In the eastern and southern regions, many people speak Russian, and there is absolutely no forced "Ukraineization."

You might be asking what all this fuss is about in Crimea, the autonomous region of eastern Ukraine with strong ties to Russia. Why are thousands coming to the streets with Russian flags? It's easy to explain.

Many people in Crimea and eastern Ukraine don't want the protection of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But there are some who are afraid of forced Ukraineization because they have been fed propaganda by Russian TV channels for years. The purpose is to convince Ukrainians that we are divided, not one country, and that the safest course of action for Russian-speaking areas is to break away and join Russia.

These ideas have been cultivated since I was a child. I remember when I lived in Donetsk in the '90s, how scared we were that a candidate from western Ukraine would win an election and force us to speak Ukrainian. But when I moved out of the area of aggressive Russian information, I quickly realized I can speak Russian in Kiev or Lviv and no one will ever be upset with me!

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Over our 22 years of Ukrainian independence, fears of language or ethnic persecution have never come true. But they were kept alive by Russian propaganda. We understand that Putin is trying to escalate tension and provoke civil war in Ukraine right now. He can't afford for a free Ukraine to succeed: His own people might get an idea that it's possible to overthrow a tyrant and build a prosperous country.

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Putin won't succeed. Ukrainians are wiser than that and won't kill each other over the nonexistent problem of language. To demonstrate that, last week, people in Lviv (traditionally Ukrainian-speaking) spoke only Russian all day, and in response, those in Donetsk (traditionally Russian-speaking) spoke Ukrainian!

No civil war in Ukraine, Mr. Putin! It must be getting harder to justify the presence of military force to "protect" people when nobody is in danger.

I just talked to my friends in Crimea.

Yuri in Simferopol told me that it's a handful of pro-Russian extremists in the streets trying to make a scene for Russian video cameras -- they are showing that these are the Russians who request protection!

Meanwhile, the rest of the city is terrified by the presence of Russian military forces and are evacuating their families to central or western Ukraine.

I got a similar report from Luda in Kharkov. She said that a large group of Russians were brought across the border by buses, and they were the ones inspiring and instigating unrest that resulted in putting a Russian flag on a municipal building.

The amount of propaganda Russia has poured onto Ukraine is hard to comprehend. Putting troops on Ukrainian land is going to bring the very opposite result from what Putin expected: I believe it's uniting Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia and Putin are getting into deeper isolation from the world as more and more countries are recalling their ambassadors from Russia and condemning the government's actions.

Good job, Mr. Putin! Thank you from all of us Ukrainians (Russian and Ukrainian-speaking) for uniting Ukraine against your military aggression.